Friday, November 5, 2010

Jack Stone(Chaos in Cairo Character)

Born in Minneapolis Minnesota USA to a brick layer father and a waitress mother.The Hurtbottom's lived in a state of semi-impoverishment in the inner city where life could get hard at times.Habitually picked on for his name led to young Leonard to engage in fist a cuffs on a regular basis often with older,bigger and crueller children.Tired of receiving a beating Leonard joined the local gym and learned the sport of boxing.Soon the tables turned and the taunting ceased as Leonard engaged the biggest tormentors he could find in a bit of back room brawling leaving them all in bruised heap.Leonard in fact became so good at boxing that at the age of sixteen he became a junior state champion and something of a neighbourhood celebrity.

In collage Leonard joined the men's rugby team where he looked to be a rising star until a confrontation with the coaches son caused him to be removed from the team.... over yes you guessed it an insult/tease to his name whereby the coaches son had to spend a few evening in the local infirmary.

In 1912 Leonard joined the French Foreign Legion to see the world as he put it.When the Great War broke out Leonard had risen to the rank of captain where he saw action on both Somme and Verdun among other gruelling battlefields.During the war he was awarded many medals including the highest Legion d'honneur.

After his entire company was wiped out at Verdun due to an incompetent commanding officer ordering Leonard's company to assault a near impregnable machine gun position over open ground leaving him a badly wounded sole survivor.This caused him to return in a fury whereby he beat the man senseless.

Not wanting to execute a national hero for fear of the demoralizing effect it might have Leonard was quietly demoted to a lieutenant and sent on garrison duty to North Africa/Egypt to command a very small undermanned remote outpost.When not fighting off the Turks and renegade Arabs it was here that he learned the study of archaeology and acquired a fascination with the occult from celebrated British professor Tinsdale who was conducting an archaeological excavation who was to later join Leonard in many future adventures.

After the war Leonard resigned his commission and changed his name to Jack Steel so as to have no record hanging on him and also tired of the trouble his name caused.It was from here that he started his life as an adventurer, investigator and artefact seeker of both historical and occult objects.

It was actually Leonard who discovered King Tutankhamen's tomb,but John Carter wanting the glory for himself had him drugged and kidnapped and held in a basement in Cairo.Leonard escaped by being able to trick his kidnappers a into believing he was having a heart attack and feigning unconsciousness whereby this lured them into the basement where he sprung into action and overpowered them.However,by then the damage was done and nobody believed his story.

Disgusted Leonard left Egypt for adventures in the Himalayas where he accrued some fame,but that is another story.In 1925 Jack as we will now call him as this is his preference returned to Egypt with rumours of Ramses the Great suspected tomb location being found by his old friend Professor Tinsdale.The problem was funds were low and a mysterious group was shadowing their moves and making things difficult thus bringing investigations to a standstill.....that is until Jimmy arrived and this is where the story will begin.